Never settle for a small one, and demand a corner piece with a flower.

Tag Archives: Style Key West

You already heard last week, that the Listen to Your Mother 2012 videos are all online. I’ve watched all of them (seriously – all ten shows) and highly recommend that you do too. But I’ll warn you…these shows are addictive and you may find yourself up very late at night watching “just one more.”

In other news – everyone went back to school and we’re settling into a new schedule. This is a major milestone for the twins since they started Kindergarten!

And as you can see, they hated it.

I don’t remember ever being that happy about going to school… But after watching their brother get on the school bus every day for the past couple of years, they were ready.

We had back to school night last Monday and it was my first time trying to juggle three classrooms. It was so rushed that I missed the projects on display until the very end. I didn’t get a picture of Oliver’s since that room was locked by the time I thought of taking any (how is it I’m still such a rookie after seven years of motherhood!) But George and Eleanor’s were out in the hallway. Here is Eleanor’s:

That says, “My name is Eleanor. I like ice cream.” I love how she chose to portray herself waving. She’s friendly like that.

And here is George’s contribution to a “Hopes and Dreams Class Quilt”:

At first we thought that was a yellow tree, but then I realized that it was probably his take on an easel (a picture of him “doing art”). Turns out I was reading far too much into the drawing though, as George explained that it’s a “golden rocket.” Of course!

Poor Oliver isn’t getting much attention in this update, but don’t worry – he’s very happy in his new class and his teachers are thrilled by the work he’s doing. I don’t have any good images since he wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea of a back to school picture, but my neighbor took this one at the bus stop:

That is her two year old photo-bombing the shot. It may be one of my favorite pictures ever.

Now I have hours of the day all to myself – no bickering sidekicks. And I’ll admit, it’s weird. Eleanor asks, “Mommy do you miss us SO much while we’re gone?” Of course I say yes. And it’s kind of true. But in all honesty, the day goes by quickly and I’m back at the bus stop soon enough.

A year ago, I would have used those hours to really focus on the work I was doing for Style Key West. But that’s another big announcement: my parents are closing their shop! So that includes the website and the online store – otherwise known as “my job.”

That’s The Rillerah, a family river house that my Dad and his brother inherited. I’ve only been there once when I was nine months old. But I guess I now have some incentive to make that loooong trip. So I’ll be trading in a southernmost second home (where your parents live is always “home” right?) for one in the far northwest. New is fun – but I’m no good at goodbyes. It’s bittersweet.

And of course I’m out of a job.

But here’s some other big (for me) news: I got a new job! Literally, just this second. Okay – maybe a couple of hours ago, but close enough. I’ll write more about it later, but I can tell you that I’ll be working for CertifiKid, a popular “deals” website for families in the DC-Baltimore area (and now expanding to other regions). My focus will be on the special needs community, a recent addition to their site. This is particularly exciting for me since I know first hand how hard it is to research special needs resources and how valuable word of mouth recommendations can be. I love the idea of helping special needs families find out about vendors and services that could literally CHANGE THEIR LIVES – and get them a good deal at that (this stuff is expensive!) And I owe it all to my friend Lara who told me about the position and made the introduction. Yet another example of the opportunities that I’ve found through blogging…

First? A couple of months ago when I said that my surgery was so easy and no big deal and I would happily do it again for the two days in bed in nothing else? That was the Percoset talking. The healing process sucks.

I still need to hold my incision scar when I cough (high five allergy season! It’s been a blast). And when I sneeze. And when I laugh… It’s annoying. Also? I’m sometimes hobbling by the end of the day because I have the hubris to think I can stand for more than five minutes at a time. I mean – I’m going to be forty next year, not EIGHTY!

Since I am not really into being sick, hurt or injured in any way, I thought I’d better check in with my doctor to make sure I’m not doing anything to prolong recovery time. And the good news is that I’m not. The bad news is that it may take a long time to heal completely and I may always have little aches and twinges (check back often for my imminent weather predictions, “My bum ab is acting up again – looks like a storm’s coming our way…”)

Seriously though. I’m fine and I’m not really all that bothered by any of this – I just wanted to get reassurance that it’s still okay to lift my 60 lb. six year old off his bike and drag him upstairs at bath time. You know – the everyday parenting stuff. And I did. Get reassurance, that is. But she did say something technical about ligaments and anti-inflamatories that resulted in a decision that I should take Motrin for a week.

One would think that in the two times I’ve been out since that appointment I would actually make the effort to buy the Motrin…but I guess I’ve been too preoccupied with more pressing concerns such as whether I was really in the mood for a Starbucks coffee or if I should pick up another case of magic erasers for what has become the great wall cleaning event of 2011.

So with little interest in dragging the twins back out in the rain, I decided to see what was in our medicine cabinets. And I did find Motrin! But it was Motrin PM. I don’t think I can even take that in the evening as it says on the label the you should only use it if you plan to have “a full night’s sleep.” What is that? I stay away from medicine with directions I don’t understand. I’ll have to figure something else out.

In other news – we went to Key West for a week and I wrote a rather negative post about how tired I was. And that was all true – but there was also plenty of fun in there. Like this:

Wait – that wasn’t the fun part… I meant, like this:

And related to Key West – I FINALLY finished all of that data entry for the online shop AND launched the new Style Key Westwebsite!

Please add the blog to your reader. I’ll be posting daily – and even if you’re not really into the decor thing, I could use some followers (and don’t forget FaceBook and Twitter)!

Finally (third – or last), I recently confirmed that I will be able to attend BlogHer in August. I’m so excited and currently trying to convince a number of my friends to join me. Will you be there? I’d love to see you.

Now that I’ve got the Style Key West site up and running, I’m going to try to get back to blogging regularly here. Though as evidenced by this snore of a post, I’m already a little rusty after a few weeks. We’ll see…

Not sure if you noticed, but I took an unplanned hiatus from Wishing True. Pretty much all of my free time has been consumed by data entry for the new Style Key Westonline shop. And it’s finally up and running!

We’ll be adding more products of course, which I’ll be sure to feature on the Style Key WestBLOG! You didn’t know that I have a home furnishings blog? Well – now you do. In fact, that blog is the reason that I don’t cover decor here as much as I used to. Make sure to visit and add the feed (http://www.stylekeywestblog.com/) to your reader.

I’ll be back momentarily with posts on some recent finds – and we’ll be back to our regular blogging program next week. Thanks for sticking with me!

I have mentioned a few times that I’m working on setting up an online store for my parents’ home furnishings shop, Style Key West. And I actually had the hubris to think that it would be all done by last Friday. I even ignored my blogs for a week to work on the project. And guess what? IT’S STILL NOT DONE. I’m in data entry hell.

That’s wildly exaggerated of course, because “hell” implies that I hate data entry. And in the spirit of full disclosure I have to say, I actually kind of like data entry. I find it soothing and even satisfying. Something related to my slight OCD streak I’m sure – but either way, it’s not so much “hell” as it is time consuming. So I’m going to be fairly absent for another week. I do have one short post in mind that may go up before Saturday – but that’s chancy at best.

In the meantime – I collected many links over the course of two weeks since I did take blog READING (as opposed to writing) breaks. I didn’t get through my entire reader mind you – but at this point, a comprehensive list would be obnoxious (or at the very least, unkind).

Before that though I’d just like to announce that Eleanor and George have started a new campaign against my looks. I will be 40 next year, and anti-age creams have been a staple of my personal maintenance routine since I was 34. Basically since the twins were born. And for every smear of eye cream that goes onto my crows feet, they insist on giving me new wrinkles on a daily basis.

And how do they do this? They fight – they fight – they fight and fight and fight…

…fight fight fight – bite bite bite – the Eleanor and Georgie show!

A theme song that runs through my head pretty much 24/7 these days. Except in my head, I hear it as “The Screamy and Shrieky Show.” It’s a magical time…

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Kate Coveny Hood

Hi! I'm Kate, a mother of three who wages a daily battle against wrinkles, dust, a lack of personal time and the constant arrows that having a special needs child shoots directly into one’s heart. I first hit publish on The Big Piece of Cake in 2008 when I planned to write "a humor blog." Since then I've lost any semblance of focus. Sometimes I say interesting things...and sometimes I just say things. Visit me here for varying levels of insight and over sharing.